Main Page/Regional hubs/PNW/Portland/Notes
Supporting rural libraries[edit]
- Small libraries facing threats need to know that they are not alone -- need support from larger libraries in the area, including university and State library systems. Librarians in more supported libraries should visit small, rural libraries in their geographical area and ask: how can we work together?
- Priority: making sure rural library staff feel prepared.
- Small rural libraries are often run by people with customer service experience but no library background. May not be connected to the resources available from their state library, library organizations and mailing lists. These staff may feel intimidated by credential librarians, so may not be eager to just reach out.
- ARSL used PLS data to locate libraries that were not participating in their events and created a postcard campaign to invite staff to conferences. Successful!
- Newly created so-called World Library Association is inviting conservative libraries to end their affiliation with ALA and join their fringe organization at no cost.
- Recommended podcast: Straight White American Jesus by ex-ministers. It's helpful to know the language and have talking points that resonate with the community you are serving, including religious language.
- Need to recognize that IF talking points will never convince true believers that it's okay to have books on gender identity in the children's section, as they believe that exposure to these books can imperil a child's soul. Logical arguments can't override emotional conviction that they are fighting evil.
- Staff in rural libraries may be more liberal than average, which brought them to work in libraries, or they may embody the same beliefs as the dominant community. Proceed carefully -- avoid attacking the beliefs of the community.
- What training resources are available? Every Library. WebJunction and ALA. ARSL wants to develop entry level resources about library values, when time allows.
Teaching privacy[edit]
- Privacy is tricky - we've developed a lot of apathy as connected devices have enveloped our lives - how to cut through this apathy? - Terms of Services are so easy to ignore. Talk about consequences? - Why do we care about privacy? -- Roe v Wade overturned - red states using various data sources to see who is bypassing local anti-abortion laws -- More automated traffic cameras - which have some good justifications, but still have unintended consequences -- Institutional resources and policies --- Orbis Cascade Alliance - tons of power that goes unused to keep chosen vendors from becoming data brokers -- People trust us, but we don't always know how to direct people --- Have to find teachable moments, which can be difficult when trying to answer a specific question or direct someone in a small task --- Hard to approach in a limited amount of time when everyone has differing ability levels with tech -- There is an assumption that students and young people don't care about privacy. But once they are exposed to the conversation, they do care! -- All these tools are for profit, be they paid, subscription-based, or "free" --- The free tools make you the product by selling the data --- Students need to be encouraged to use databases. Their institutions pay for it, and they pay for that extra bit of data privacy that you don't get with Google --- Canvas E-Portfolio vs cloud based software - sometimes "safety" costs money! -- Teaching privacy --- It's hard to teach without scaring, but it's important --- People should feel empowered --- It's impossible to fully withdraw from the modern world of data trawling --- Resources that already exist:
Metro NY does a lot of data literacy trainings - have online lectures
Tactical Tech Data Detox is a great tool to have in your space.
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has their own similar tool
--- People need these little concrete steps in order to feel empowered --- How do we get all these sophisticated tools into the hands of educators and students? We need to integrate these steps into education, so that they aren't "extra" things that most busy people will ignore - Challenges to privacy in your library: law enforcement -- LE expect access to data and cameras - and don't like when you say no! -- LE showing up is scary, and if you're not equipped to deal with it or don't know your own org's polices, can be difficult to not get pushed around --- Your library might have policies in place, but if you don't know them off hand, that puts you in a tough spot --- Officers are going to purposefully seek out the person who doesn't know --- Some staff members are very happy to cooperate with law enforcement by breaking confidentiality --- Response: collect and retain as little info as possible. You can't hand over what you don't have, so even if someone doesn't know or purposefully ignores policy, they shouldn't be able to do much anyway --- Records can add up quickly to paint a pretty full picture of someone. Do you retain old records, like previous names or addresses, once they get updated? Or info on old fines? -- Should make a risk analysis chart available to patrons. Here is what we collect, why we need it, and how to opt out (often times this will be simply stop using the service) -- Sometimes patrons actually want us to collect all this data so that they can use it themselves. What do we keep for their benefit? What are the risks of doing so? -- Libraries themselves are also sometimes very interested in collecting data for analytics purposes. Graphs, metrics, studying ROI, all in the name of improving service. This attitude of "track all the things!" is much less prevalent now than it was a decade or two ago. - Privacy rights of minors -- Parents want to track their kids sometimes -- Child Online Protection Act could mandate data collection for kids - Summary, takeaways, next steps -- It's skill building. Encourage curiosity. -- Don't always default to every tool that's free. Although sometimes, a good piece of open-source software is a good alternative to a data-gobbling mega-corp. Perhaps one takeaway is be skeptical of anything cloud based. -- Need to understand more about data brokers -- Vendor agreements - need to use our significant buying power to find the best tools that protect our patrons, and force vendors to abide by agreements --- Need a vendor checklist - checkout Licensing Privacy Project --- Of course, this would need some sort of way to police the vendors to make sure they are doing what they promised
